Friday, July 16, 2010

Academic Shills???????????????

Alexander Higgins blog spot today alerted me to an article published in the Alabama press
http://blog.al.com/live/2010/07/bp_buys_up_gulf_scientists_for.html

The headline reads:

"BP buys up Gulf scientists for legal defense, roiling academic community" by Ben Raines July 16
Here is an excerpt:

"For the last few weeks, BP has been offering signing bonuses and lucrative pay to prominent scientists from public universities around the Gulf Coast to aid its defense against spill litigation.

BP PLC attempted to hire the entire marine sciences department at one Alabama university, according to scientists involved in discussions with the company's lawyers. The university declined because of confidentiality restrictions that the company sought on any research.

The Press-Register obtained a copy of a contract offered to scientists by BP. It prohibits the scientists from publishing their research, sharing it with other scientists or speaking about the data that they collect for at least the next three years.

"We told them there was no way we would agree to any kind of restrictions on the data we collect. It was pretty clear we wouldn't be hearing from them again after that," said Bob Shipp, head of marine sciences at the University of South Alabama. "We didn't like the perception of the university representing BP in any fashion."

Majia Here: This is outrageous. Any academic or scientist who agrees to hide (i.e., not publish) findings is a shill and deserves to be severely sanctioned by the broader academic community.

Science is NOT science when it is clouded with secrecy.

Scientists who agree to hide findings for money bring to mind the Nazi scientists who conducted unspeakable "research" on human subjects.

Although I am not establish a clear equation between the 2 groups, there is a slippery slope seperating them...

1 comment:

  1. These are classic symptoms of, Regulatory Deficiency, the scourge that seems to plague more and more multinational corporations every business cycle. Delusional narcisissm and hallucinations of people as expendible gaskets are other tell-tale signs of the disease as well.

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